Change Your Image
gmoney-4
Reviews
Rock Profile (1999)
Extremely funny program based on spoofing pop stars
This brilliantly done program deserves more than to be shown at 10pm on UK Play. They have done some top quality send-ups of famous bands and then they show videos of the band with ridiculous off the wall comments and small talks with other bands/people commenting on the rock profile. My favourites at this being Jo Whiley (`get with it RP!'), Howard (from Take That always offering his services), Gary Barlow (`hi you fat tossers'), and Lou Reed (`Thur'). My favourite of the rock profiles so far has definitely been Steps, just hilarious, this episode particularly displayed Jamie Theakston's impeccable timing and delivery. Other notable favourites include The Bee Gees, The Minogue's, Blur and the Chemical Brothers. The only one I have ever not enjoyed is Elton John, but anyway, great show.
Malcolm in the Middle (2000)
How much does your head weigh? Mine weighs zero!
Man is this a funny program. People have compared it to a real life Simpsons, this seems to be an apt description even if it hasn't quite hit the heights of the Simpsons. The writing is very sharp and the whole cast do a great job, in particular Malcolm and Lois. I have to say though, my personal favourite in this show is Dewey, just his naïve look is enough to have me in hysterics. Some of my favourite moments from the show thus far include; Dewey weighing his head, Malcolms disabled friend Stevie phoning the house, the wood chipper, Dewey meeting Caroline (the teacher) and the frog lift off. I think the stories with Frances (at military school w/o the rest of the family) can lag quite badly sometimes and the episodes are somewhat up and down, with some incredibly funny ones and some merely average ones. If they will continue to work on this show and tighten things up just a bit it will be damn near perfect.
Snake Eyes (1998)
Started out so well, and the rest, oh dear...
This film started out so strong, the first 15 minutes were extremely well done with Nick Cage at his manic best, at this point I was wondering why the critics had been so down on this movie. Unfortunately the rest of the film was nowhere near the quality of the opening scene. The story felt weak and it ended up just a simple chase round a hotel type film with some vicious beatings thrown in there too. Gary Sinise was disappointing and I would expect more from an actor of his calibre, but I just don't think the material was there. In fact the only redeemable feature of the last 70 minutes of the film is the amazingly sexy Carla Gugino, who could definitely have a future playing femme fatales.
Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997)
Decent crime caper
Not a bad effort from Kiefer Sutherland on his directorial debut. This little crime caper is fairly derivative of recent Tarantino films, with the discussion of the quarter looking somewhat out of place, Tarantino could have pulled something like that off with snappier dialogue but it just didn't work. Overall though it's a nice little film with some decent action and some cool lines and a nice black convertible car though as is often the case with these little crime capers the ending is pretty weak and predictable. Vincent Gallo put in another decent performance as did Kim Dickens, who you can see more of in a better film that this, The Zero Effect. Also of note was the incredibly pretty Grace Phillips as Donna, she puts in a good performance as the shocked wife of Raymond. The idea of Raymond sympathising/envying the criminals was an interesting one, though I found the transformation to be less than credible. Overall this was a nice action film and you can do a lot worse.
Chasing Amy (1997)
An engaging and humorous edition to the Jersey trilogy, Brilliant!
What can I say about this film, well first off I should say that this is my favourite film, I wouldn't claim it to be the best film ever, but I just never tire of watching this. Jason Lee puts in a first class performance as Banky and pretty much steals every scene he's in, accept when Dwight Ewell character Hooper X is on the screen, he provides one of the funniest film characters in recent memory. From the beginning of the Q&A session to the moment Banky goes to check the dents in his car is my personal favourite bit(s), just hilarious. After the extremely entertaining comedy of the first half of the film Kevin Smith takes his film into more serious territory as Holden's (Ben Affleck) relationship with Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams) develops. Smith handles it very well and I found it to be quite believable and as intended I found myself caring about what happened to these characters. And even more importantly Smith made me rethink some of my conceptions of love and also the (mis)conceptions we have of homosexuality. The obligatory appearance of Jay and Silent Bob is, as usual, hilarious and Silent Bob provides all of us with some pearls of wisdom. Overall this is Smiths best film (IMO of course) and my personal favourite film, if you haven't seen it check it out, have some good laughs and be touched along the way.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
A simply amazing 2.5 Hours
I sat stunned as I watched this film, which is quite simply the most amazing documentary I have ever had the pleasure of watching. The film starts of with some of the most horrific images you are ever likely to see, a real crime scene video where three young boys have been murdered. What we are seeing documented is the aftermath, the arrest and subsequent trial of three teenagers for the murder of the three boys. The filmmakers never provide any running commentary to what is going on and the film is basically a series of interviews with the accused, their lawyers, family members of the relevant parties and some real trial footage. If what we are shown is a true reflection of the proceedings, and I have read little to dispute that this is the case, then I have to say that these boys being convicted of murder is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. While there isn't enough evidence for me to say they definitely didn't do this horrible thing, there is now way on earth there was proof beyond a 'reasonable doubt'. We have a conviction based on a shaky confession from a slightly retarded boy, and a couple of second hand confessions, oh and I forgot to mention, these boys were into heavy metal music (gasp), wore black clothes and had some interest in Wicca. Its these last few facts that seem to have been the reason they were convicted. Some of the speeches by the prosecutors are enough to make you laugh out loud until you realise that this is real and the man is being serious. In between all this we have some inexcusable police bungling, other potential suspects and some interesting and unsettling interviews with the parents of the murdered boys. One particular stepfather was extremely scary, when you see it you will know whom I am referring to! The scariest thing about this is that Damien Echols is still sitting on Death Row today.
Dobermann (1997)
Highly stylised action film, great fun!
This highly stylised, violent action film was a lot of fun. Vincent Cassel gives a charismatic performance, his real life wife, the delectable Monica Bellucci, does a great job at looking amazing, these two can also be seen together in the film L'Appartement. Tcheky Karyo deserves a mention as he does a nice line in menacing with the most ridiculously bent cop we have seen since Gary Oldman in Leon. This film does resemble a music video at times (Like Run Lola Run) and there are many silly moments and some amusing ones as well, the director takes a nice swipe at a French film magazine by having a character wipe his ass with a copy of their magazine. This is one of the most violent action films I have ever seen so be warned it is not for sensitive souls. My only gripe, besides the lack of depth in the story, is the subtitles, they were fairly small and at times unreadable as they go on a white background. I have never had this problem with other foreign films so there is really no excuse. This is mindless French fun I would recommend to anyone who enjoyed some cool camera work and some could action sequences.
Thursday (1998)
Unoriginal but fun film
Is Thursday an original film? Heck no, but it is a lot of fun! I just caught this buried on the movie channels one night and it was an enjoyable flick. I was expecting much but what I got was some interesting scenes (I really liked the first seen at the convenience store), some amusing stories as told by the characters and a little bit of action thrown in the mix as well. Some good performances from young actors, Paulina Porizkova was good and I was particularly impressed with Aaron Eckhart (who has gone on to impress me further in Yours Friends and Neighbours' and Erin Brokovich'). So if you want 90 minutes of easy going fun go ahead and check out Thursday'.